This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, visit my Disclaimer Policy.
Time just keeps on flying by, and it was time to get my entries done for the June installment of the 2019 Food in Jars Mastery Challenge – Jam!
The May category was Berries, and I actually made two kinds of jam (Blueberry-Rhubarb and Strawberry Balsamic) and a hot sauce (Strawberry-Rhubarb). I didn’t necessarily need any more jam quite yet, but I did have some strawberries and cherries in the freezer from last year to use, and my mom had a bunch of rhubarb in the garden.
So … more jam it was, and June’s flavors included double batches of Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam and Sweet Cherry-Rhubarb Jam, and then a “use the rest of the leftover fruit” batch of Strawberry-Cherry.
Making Low Sugar Jam
When I make fruit preserves, I use about half as much sugar as traditional recipes, and I love using Pomona’s Pectin. It works so well for low-sugar recipes. I buy my Pomona’s Pectin on Amazon – it’s a bit cheaper to buy it in a 6-pack but you can also buy it in a  3-pack. They say it doesn’t really expire, so I’m comfortable buying the 6-pack.
I’m All About the Rhubarb
I love rhubarb, and I wrote a post all about it last year if you’d like to check it out. I also have an older post about just regular old Strawberry Jam.
For this particular food-preserving day, my mom prepped this rhubarb for me. I usually painstakingly chop rhubarb by hand, but she wanted to show me how cool the slicing blade on her Cuisinart 7-cup Food Processor was. I let her, and bam – it saved me an hour. Pretty cool!
A Few Other Jam-Making Tips
As you will see in some of my other posts about jam, it took me a long time to learn what a proper “boil you can’t stir out” looks like. Now that I know, I did a quick YouTube Video about it. I made lots of really delicious fruit syrups before I figured it out. (If this happens to you, they work great for sweetening iced tea and lemonade, or topping ice cream.)
I like to make most of my fruit preserves in enameled cast iron pots. I usually use my Lodge Enameled 4.6-quart Dutch Oven and it’s the perfect size for most regular batches of jam. But, I was at my mom’s house when I made these batches and used her Lodge 6-quart Enameled Dutch Oven. Since I was doing double batches anyway, it worked great!
(Disclaimer: you really aren’t supposed to double recipes when canning. If you want two batches you should make the first batch, and then the second. I didn’t. You risk it not setting properly in doing it this way, but hey, I felt like living on the edge. So, double the recipe at your own risk, and don’t say I didn’t warn you. )
I ended up with twelve 8-ounce jelly jars each of the Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam and the Sweet Cherry-Rhubarb Jam, and a handful of 4-ounce and 8-ounce jars of Strawberry-Cherry. I gave some to family and friends and put the rest in my canning pantry.
How to Use Your Jam
There are lots of ways you can use the jam in your kitchen aside from on toast and bagels. We like it that way of course, but we also try to use it in different ways, too. Last year, I did a comprehensive post about the many ways you can Use the Jam in your kitchen, and the April category of the FIJ Challenge was for Cooking with Last Year’s Preserves. The Food in Jars author Marisa McClellan also has a new book, The Food in Jars Kitchen, which highlights more amazing ways you can use jam and other preserves. As we head into the garden season where we will have fresh salad greens, this Bottom-of-the-Jar Vinaigrette is one of my favorite ways to use jam!
Bonus: Since I used the last bag of strawberries from my freezer, I’m all set to go pick strawberries at one of our local U-pick strawberry farms.
